Intensive Care Services

The Critical Care Unit at Lakeland Hospital, St. Joseph is a 12-bed specialty care unit designed for the patient who requires continuous and comprehensive intensive care. Lakeland’s multi-disciplinary Critical Care team assures our patients access to specialized skills and technology that address the specific needs of the critically ill patient. The CCU at Lakeland Hospital, St. Joseph currently has four full-time intensivists on staff who attend to the needs of more than 1,200 patients a year.

Progressive Care
The Progressive Care Unit at Lakeland Hospital, St. Joseph serves as a mid-step in care between the critical care unit and general nursing floors. It is for those patients who are too ill for a general nursing unit yet do not require intensive care. This small unit (10 beds) offers a multi-disciplinary approach to care in a less intensive setting.

Intensivists
Key players in the critical care team at Lakeland Hospital, St. Joseph are the intensivists. These specialists work closely with the other members of the critical care team to provide patients with ongoing, consistent care 24/7.

Lakeland Hospital, St. Joseph began an intensivist program more than eight years ago. Currently there are four intensivists in the CCU. Lakeland Hospital, St. Joseph’s critical care unit is an open system. That is, patients are admitted by their personal physician or specialist. The intensivists provide consultative care and leadership for the entire critical care team, coordinating the care of each critical care patient.

The Keystone Initiative
In November 2003, Lakeland began participating in the the Keystone ICU Project, created by Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore. The Keystone project is a quality initiative that focuses on increasing patient safety in ICUs by combining evidence-based medicine with quality improvement. The 12-bed critical care unit unit at Lakeland Hospital, St. Joseph provides care for over 1,200 patients every year. Lakeland is one of 90 hospitals across Michigan participating in the Keystone ICU project.

The critical care team constantly measures and collects data to show the effect the initiative has on a patient’s length of stay and condition. Participation in the Keystone ICU project has been a great asset to the critical care team. It has provided positive improvement results in the areas of quality, patient safety and employee satisfaction.